


L-U-V

by Missy



Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Disappearances, Gen, Ghosts, Horror, Spooky, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/pseuds/Missy
Summary: You hear awful things about the Tunnel of Luv if you live in Sea City for long enough...
Comments: 8
Kudos: 12
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	L-U-V

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rina (rinadoll)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinadoll/gifts).



They say that kids disappear down there. In the dark and quiet belly of the tunnel of love, settled by the calm and cool world of the very New Jersey feeling of Sea City, child by child disappears from the welcoming looking boats, and are never seen again. 

One would think they would tear the thing down, but it makes so much money, and really, they don't lose so many kids in there. The children in the area swear that for every kid that disappears, one new object appears as a drawing decorating the walls of the tunnel – a new squirrel in the fall scene, a beautiful flower in the springtime area, a snowman in the winter scene, a fleck of sand in the summer one. Whatever magic that has trapped them has not released them. 

Stacey was pretty sure those old stories, and the children who kept whispering them over the counter at the candy store and before the movies in that old theater, were just trying to scare her. She’d ridden subways and traveled in cabs by herself, after all. Riding one little tunnel of love (or luv) all by herself is something she can and will do all by herself.

The ride was dimmer than she remembered it being, but that might have been because she was too busy making out with Toby the last time she was here. There were soft, tinkling noises – like a waterfall dripping in the distance. 

_Stacey._ A shiver tickled her spine at the sound of her name being whispered. She turned around. 

Nothing. Must’ve imagined it.

When she looked back to the front of the carriage, a woman floated before her in a white dress.

Stacey screamed, but even then she thought to herself that it was just a new effect that had been installed since the last time she was there. The woman tilted her head and frowned.

 _Don’t you remember me, Stacey?_

She didn’t. 

_Mary Anne’s mother. I’m Alma._

But what was Alma doing here?

_You don’t know, do you? Well, they did lie about how I died, didn’t they? Well, I died here, not of cancer, not on the farm. Richard would tell something sweet and comforting to make Mary Anne feel better. She was such a sensitive baby, even more so back then. She wouldn’t be able to handle it, if she knew what really happened. Something went wrong with the mechanism that makes the boat move. A fire. I…well, it doesn’t matter now. They built the tunnel over again after the fire, but I’m still here, and likely to be here forever, and it’s not so bad – but I miss my Mary Anne. I wish she’d come home to me. But I can make do with the children who come here – all alone, so unwanted. The children who come through here alone, they’ll never leave. I’ll have them forever._

No…

_Come with me, Stacey._

She grabbed a handful of cushion, just before Alma lifted her from the boat, both strong incorporeal hands on her shoulders, splitting leather and scattering feathers everywhere. The one Stacey felt in her grip…that would bring her back home.

Wouldn’t it?

****

There were fourteen bluebirds in a blossoming tree decorating the spring scene of the Sea City Tunnel of Luv when Stacey McGill bought a ticket and sat down on the ride.

Now there are fifteen.


End file.
